The baking blitz of 2010 is officially over, with every little crumb spoken for. It's always a treat (wink, wink) to hear which is someone's particular favorite, some are thin-crispy people, others are chewy, gooey people. As always, I tried to create a mixtape of sorts that incorporated a little of everything (some spice, some crunch, some chocolate, some chili heat, some citrus.) I spent many days searching for the right cookies: online, in books, new recipes, old recipes. But as much as I tried to fight it, what I kept coming back to was good, old Martha Stewart. (I just skipped right over her "For the Health-Conscious" section.) So with the exception of Joy the Baker and my own little bar concoction, I have Martha to thank. And while the making of it all was certainly hairy (somehow hand cream-making got thrown in there somewhere), the sweetness of creating and giving always makes it worth it in the end. So here in all it's sugar-laced, butter-gorged splendor are the recipes. 
Lacy Coconut Cookies
from Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies
{makes about 6 dozen}
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1-3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Whish to combine flour, powdered sugar and salt in a bowl. Pour in coconut milk, and stir until well combined. Stir in vanilla and shredded coconut. Add butter and stir until combined. Chill 30 minutes.
Drop a heaping teaspoon of batter onto a baking sheet lined with a nonstick baking mat. Using the back of a spoon, gently spread into a circle about 3-1/2 inches in diameter. Repeat, spacing circles about 3 inches apart.
Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until cookies are flat and edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks using an offset spatula.; let cool completely. Wipe mats and cool sheets between batches. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container between layers of parchment at room temperature up to 3 days.
Toffee Almond Squares with Maldon
by Mama Pebble
{makes about 2 dozen}
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
12 oz. Scharffen Berger (or comparable) semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups roasted almonds, chopped
3 cups toffee pieces, chopped
1/4 cup Maldon salt
Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Whisk to combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter and both sugars with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each, mix in vanilla.
Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in toffee chips. Spread mixture onto a parrchment-lined rectangular pan (leaving enough parchment up and over the sides of the pan to create something like cradle for the mix, so its easier to pull out once it's done.)
Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until golden brown and done in the center, about 18 to 20 minutes. Once out of the oven, immediately sprinkle chopped chocolate, almonds, and salt over the top. Allow to cool completely before grabbing the sides of the parchment and placing on a cookie sheet to cut into 1-1/2-inch squares.
Pepita Spice Cookies
from Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies
{makes about 8 dozen}
3/4 cup hulled green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
3/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
Heat a heavy skillet, such as cast iron, over medium-low. Add pepitas, and shake gently to move seeds around so they toast evenly and do not burn. Toast seeds until they are aromatic and barely take on color. Allow them to cool slightly. Pulse seeds in a food processor just until finely chopped.
Beat butter and powdered sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, salt and chopped pepitas, and beat until well combined. Reduce speed to low, and gradually mix in flour, scraping down side of bowl as necessary. Divide dough into 2 disks, and wrap in plastic. Chill 90 minutes or up to 1 day.
Preheat oven to 325-degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll 1 disk of dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and chill 1 hour. Repeat with the remaining disk. Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut out shapes. Re-roll scraps of dough and cut more shapes. Transfer shapes to to parchment-lined cookie sheets, spacing 2 inches apart and chill 15 minutes.
Bake, rotating sheets halfway through until golden brown around edges, 20 to 22 minutes. et cookies cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar through a sieve or sifter.
Lemon/Lime Sables
{makes about 18 cookies}
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted before measuring
1/2 tsp. salt, preferably sea salt
2 large egg yolks, preferably at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
zest of 1 lemon and lime
For decoration:
1 egg yolk
crystal or dazzle sugar
Working in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until it is smooth and very creamy. Rub the zest of the lemon and lime into the granulated sugar with your fingertips, creating a fragrant sugar. Add the sugars and salt to the butter and continue to beat until smooth and velvety, not fluffy and airy, about 1 minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in 2 egg yolks, again beating until well blended.
Turn off the mixer, pour in the flour, drape a kitchen towel over the mixer and pulse the mixer about 5 times at low speed for 1 or 2 seconds each time. Take a peek; if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of more times; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, stir for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough and the dough looks uniformly moist. If you still have some flour on the bottom of the bowl, stop mixing and use a rubber spatula to work the rest of it into the dough. (The dough will not come together in a ball — and it shouldn’t. You want to work the dough as little as possible. What you’re aiming for is a soft, moist, clumpy dough. When pinched, it should feel a little like Play-Doh.)
Scrape the dough onto a work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each piece into a smooth log about 9 inches long (it’s easiest to work on a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic to help form the log). Wrap the logs well and chill them for at least 2 hours. The dough may be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
When ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and keep it at the ready.
To decorate the edges of the sables, whisk the egg yolk until smooth. Place one log of chilled dough on a piece of waxed paper and brush it with yolk (the glue), and then sprinkle the entire surface of the log with sugar. Trim the ends of the roll if they are ragged and slice the log into 1/3-inch-thick cookies.
Place the rounds on the baking sheet, leaving an inch of space between each cookie, and bake for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at the halfway point. When properly baked, the cookies will be light brown on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on top. Let the cookies rest 1 or 2 minutes before carefully lifting them onto a cooling rack with a wide metal spatula. Repeat with the remaining log of dough. (Make sure the sheet is cool before baking each batch.)
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
from Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies
[makes about 3 dozen}
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Scharffen Berger, it really is the best you can get)
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground chile, such as arbol, chipotle or ancho)
Preheat oven to 400-degrees. Whisk to combine flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter and 1-1/2 cups sugar with an electric mixer on meduim-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape down side of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Reduce speed to low, and gradually add flour mixture; beat until combined.
In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the cinnamon and chile. Form heaping tablespoons of dough balls and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are set in center and begin to crack, about 10 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks about 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.
